The race to pass President Donald Trump's domestic spending and policy legislation has left some Republicans in the dark about what's actually in the bill.
NBC News reported on Monday that some Republicans discovered an excise tax on wind and solar projects in the 940-page bill — a provision that was a surprise even to legislators who helped craft it.
"It's a secret, I guess," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told NBC News. "I don't know where it came from."
Other GOP members were also unaware of the new tax. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told the outlet that the tax seemed to be "airdropped" into the bill ahead of a weekend vote. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) was also mystified, even though she agreed with the provision in principle.
The lack of knowledge about the excise tax among some GOP members speaks to the speed at which Republicans are attempting to pass the bill. The House of Representatives debated the bill for just five days before passing it to the Senate on May 22. The Senate has been debating it for more than a month, and some members of the party have started backing away from it.
For instance, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has said he won't support the bill because of its impact on the federal deficit. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has also said she doesn't agree with certain provisions related to AI regulation.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, once a close advisor to Trump, has also strongly criticized the bill.
"Utterly insane and destructive," Musk said in a post on X, the social media network that he owns. "It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future."
